The AFL world is fed up with Richmond, but is the empire really crumbling?We are desperate for the Tigers to fall off the perch but only a fool would write their obituary just yet
Jonathan Horn
The Guardian
Mon 24 May 2021 Kane Cornes reckons Richmond are turning into a bunch of mopers and whingers. “We don’t like sooks in this game,” he said on the weekend. Cornes’s ability – almost a primal urge – to find half a dozen things to object to by lunchtime is surely without peer. Insert the phrase “it’s not a good look” into 80% of your sentences and you have content, you get clicks, and you are guaranteed a career. Half his luck. He knew exactly who he was as a footballer, and is equally unwavering and utterly indefatigable in his role as a professional provocateur.
Is he right, though? The Tigers were certainly stitched up at times against Brisbane on Friday night. Coaches, players and journalists have always exercised a certain restraint when it comes to criticising umpires. It is an unwritten – and, in many ways, noble – rule. After all, every time a leading football figure bags an umpire publicly, it has knock-on effects at the grassroots level. Sometimes, though, it needs to be said. Umpiring is in a dire state. The interpretation of the rules is completely incomprehensible. It impacted yet another game in Adelaide on Saturday evening. Half the coaches in the league arguably have more grounds for grievance than Damien Hardwick right now.
Umpiring aside, Cornes’s comments reflect a sentiment that is growing by the week. The football world is fed up with Richmond. We are itching to find fault with them, desperate for them to fall off the perch. They were a fluffy, feel-good story for all of about five minutes. Now every bit of negative press is apparently evidence that the empire is crumbling.
Back in 2016, when Hawthorn were gunning for their fourth premiership on the trot, the sentiment was similar. “Anyone but Hawthorn” was the prevailing view. They seemed to get all the breaks. Their supporters were everywhere, and they were insufferable.
Richmond’s 1-5 record against the top-eight teams is cause for considerable concern
In tight finishes, lower-ranked sides would treat them with a certain deference. They had a strange, spluttering season but still somehow finished equal top on wins. They should have won the qualifying final and were nearly four goals the better of the Western Bulldogs the following week. When the Dogs turned up the wick in the second half, the champs suddenly looked very old and shorn of all menace. The era of crisp kicking and almost architectural ball movement was dead. At the time, no sane person could have predicted the Richmond era of chaos, of power-endurance running, and of building an entire system around a solar, silent talent.
Fast forward half a decade, and Richmond’s 1-5 record against the top-eight teams is cause for considerable concern. Each of those sides found a different way to work their locks. But only a fool would write their obituary just yet. They’re pretty much in the same position on the cusp of winter as they were in all their premiership years. Each year, they bottled the criticism, learnt from their losses and maintained an almost messianic belief in their system. They revel not just in coming from behind in games, but in emerging from the pack during seasons. They are like a champion thoroughbred that carries on in the mounting yard, misses the kick, throws its head about, finally settles, and launches a sustained, withering six-furlong burst, mowing down the pacesetters one by one.
Back in the day, no footy club panicked quite like Richmond. They sacked coaches at the drop of a hat. On and off the field, they were forever second-guessing. My they were fun back then. Their fans ranked among the most pessimistic people in the country. They had good reason to be. Now they believe they can win from anywhere. There is a lightness to them that just doesn’t seem right. They give the impression that they can’t quite believe their luck. These are their good old days. People are sick of them now, which no doubt makes it all the more satisfying.
Everything ends. Look at Hawthorn right now. Their president seems to think that you just cop your comeuppance, flick the switch and then come again. He has similar views on state politics. But it might not be that simple for the Hawks. They may be poking about for years to come.
Richmond are years off that sort of reckoning. On paper, they seem to have a pretty soft run home. They play eight of their next dozen games at the MCG. Next week, they will welcome back Trent Cotchin, Shane Edwards, Dion Prestia and Shai Bolton. But they need to get cracking. They don’t need any more trifling distractions. And, most importantly, they need clear galloping room.
Winter is coming, and the competition is coming for them. “Big-boy month”, as Hardwick calls it, may come four weeks early this year. Last year’s premiership, they all agreed, was the sweetest and hardest fought of all. A fourth from five years, from outside the eight, with the bulk of the footballing world willing them to fall in a heap, would be something else altogether.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/may/24/the-afl-world-is-fed-up-with-richmond-but-is-the-empire-really-crumbling
